A place to ramble and maybe make some sense about a thing or two.

Archive for the tag “miniatures”

Why is it when Youngest Son has a friend or friends over to spend the night I’m the one completely exhausted the next day? It’s not like I’m up watching movies at 2:30 a.m. or trying to finish the last slices of the jalapeno pizza they ordered on a whim!

Fortunately, Youngest Son’s friend (to whom he was going to introduce the game Warhammer 40K) enjoyed it very much. I loaned him some of my army since he wants to play the same one I have and he picked up the rules very quickly. They played for over 3 hours and then started another game this morning. We all then went out-of-town to the closest gaming store and Youngest Son’s friend had left-over birthday money that he used to purchase some figures so he can start his own army. We even bought him a really cool figure that was already put together and painted that he saw and liked (and it wasn’t too expensive) and gave it to him as a belated birthday gift. After having lunch and a running a few more errands, we came back to the house and Youngest Son began teaching his friend how to assemble the figures. They got two done in the short time they had left and they’re both looking forward to the time after school gets out for the summer when they can spend more time together assembling, painting, and playing with the figures and ships for their respective armies. I’m very, very thankful Youngest Son has friends here. We were worried that it would be hard for him to make friends since we’re “not from ’round here” but he’s fitting in with a pretty good group.

Well, this is going to be short ’cause in an hour Syfy is going to be showing the new “Treasure Island” with Eddie Izzard, Elijah Wood and Donald Sutherland. DEFINITELY want to see it!!

Just a quick post ’cause I’m trying to get things ready for tonight/tomorrow. Youngest Son is having a friend over for the evening and to spend the day with tomorrow. He attended his friend’s birthday party last weekend and bought him a present that has had the friend fascinated all week.

Husband, Youngest Son, and I enjoy playing the miniatures game Warhammer 4000 (also known as Warhammer 40K). It’s a fun strategy/tactics game played with miniature figures and vehicles on a tabletop that you “decorate” with obstacles and terrain to make it look like you’re “invading” another world. Husband plays the Space Marines — humans, and has his battle suits painted with the 35th Infantry Division patch on them. Youngest Son plays the Eldar — an alien race that is very powerful and has a special character called an Avatar that can basically walk-through the playing area “killing” anything in its path. I play the Tau — an alien race somewhat based on the Samurai/Bushido code where they believe everything is “for the greater good” and use highly specialized weapons that don’t require the soldiers to be close enough for hand-to-hand combat (VERY long-range weapons). Youngest Son’s friend was looking at different types of characters and picked the Tau as well. The gift Youngest Son gave him was the Codex for the Tau — a book published by Games Workshop (the publishers of the game system and who make ginormous sums of money on the expensive figures, paints, books, and accessories to play the game) which explains who the Tau are, what they do, how they fight, what they believe in, and then specifics on each type of character and the weapons, vehicles, and other accessories they can use during the game.

In the game, teams or individual armies face-off on large tabletops and roll dice to determine if they can move and/or attack and must remain in-range of other persons/items/equipment, if required, and everything is based on whatever you roll on the dice required for the type of movement or attack you’re attempting and a chart in the book that tells you if you’re successful or not. Simple, huh?

Yeah, I’m still trying to learn it all and this game has been out since the 1990s and Husband used to play it a LOT back then. I never got involved with it and probably wouldn’t be now except that Husband lucked-out on an entire Tau army with additional personnel, vehicles, and lots of extras that had the whole set been sold at a gaming store or online would have cost over $400, easily. He found it at a thrift shop for $18. For that low of a price, how could I resist? Plus, if I ever get tired of it, I can sell-off the items for the going rate and definitely more than double my money! That is, if Youngest Son doesn’t try to get them — he keeps asking me if I want to trade armies with him. He just doesn’t like it because my basic strategic move is to set-up my armies at the far corner of the table and shoot at everyone from there because I have weapons that have a range of 36-inches and most tables aren’t that big. That means, almost no matter what I roll, I’ll hit them.

So Youngest Son and his friend are going to attempt to play the game tonight since his friend is really, really desperate to see how it all works. I told him I’d loan him a few figures to play with so he can get the idea. Then tomorrow when we go out-of-town to get the huge bags of dog food I need for Celeste and Harley and to take Husband for an early birthday lunch, we’re going to swing by the gaming store so that his friend can spend some of his birthday money if he wants to on an army (or parts of one). Then the two boys will be able to play each other at their houses once school is over and might be able to enter some of the tournaments at the gaming store during summer vacation.

I’ve tied the voices in my head to the back of my skull for the day. I’m not in a manic mode today and I’m holding well on keeping myself out of falling into the depressive side. I’m sure they’ll get free and the story will continue again sooner-or-later, but for now I have to decide which figures I’ll let the kiddo borrow for the evening. Fortunately, my metal figures (which they no longer make) are really too powerful (and expensive) for a beginner and he can use my plastic figures (which are easy to repair if one should accidentally fall off the table and break).